U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter deserves much credit for holding a town hall meeting Tuesday on health care reform.
This and other meetings, which are being held by members of Congress nationwide, have garnered much attention in the last week.
Unfortunately, the spotlight has been on the shouting and shoving that has occurred as much as the national debate on whether our country should fundamentally shift its thinking on health care coverage.
Specter's meeting in Lebanon County was tame compared with what some of his colleagues in the Senate have faced -- elected officials have been unable to speak above the booing and yelling, others have needed police to intervene.
There were a few people who showed their anger in Lebanon, including one man who shouted at Specter, was then pushed by another audience member and finally left. Specter attempted to end the fracas and did allow the man to speak his mind -- against the senator -- before he left.
In all, Specter listened to 30 people, many of them with serious questions about the health care proposal before Congress, and many who disagree with the senator's support of it.
The town hall meeting is part of a long-standing tradition in our country where people with various viewpoints can get together in a room and agree to disagree on a given topic.
But what has happened lately is not. Given the high stakes involved with this debate, millions of dollars are being spent on trying to either derail or pass the health care legislation.
While we hear about the TV and radio advertising and lobbying members of Congress, a new tactic is advocacy campaigning.
It works like this: special interest groups make certain "real" people who share the view they support show up with talking points in hand and fire off questions/concerns at elected officials.
Not everyone speaking out at these town hall meetings is connected to a lobbying effort, and if they are they might passionately believe what they say, but it is getting harder to distinguish who is genuinely concerned and who is not.
The danger with this is that it is harder for members of Congress to know what are concerns of their constituents and what are lobbyist-run protests on issues.
Given that and the overall nasty tone of some of these events, there are members of Congress who are not holding town hall meetings.
The specter of opponents of health care reform hanging a legislator in effigy -- as happened in Maryland -- is daunting. But because people need and want answers, lawmakers must find a way to make sure the debate stays on track as Specter did yesterday.
At the center of all this are those who have real questions about health care reform. As we repeatedly hear, the plan is encompassed in a complicated 1,000-plus-page document that includes much legalese and references to other arduous laws.
People legitamately want to know what the plan means for senior citizens; how the government can afford to pay for health care insurance for every American; how it will vary from what is already in place; and how decisions on care will be made.
These questions are all good reasons for holding town hall meetings and good reasons for those in the audience to hold their tempers and put aside their politics to allow everyone to try and get answers.
U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. has held various forums statewide on health care reform and has been answering questions at these events, but we would suggest he also consider a town hall meeting format.
Through all of its recent flaws it can provide an important opportunity to dispel misconceptions and answer legitimate concerns.
But we also believe he and others deserve to be allowed to have a civil discourse on the issue.
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